Machine vision systems generally include an image source, such as a camera, for retrieving an image of a subject, such as a person, coupled with a computer system. Many system implementations receive images from the image source, process them using the computer system, and utilize the computer system to implement various methods to determine whether a user being observed by the image source is using portions of his or her body to make particular actions or form particular shapes, or gestures. The computer system then associates the observed gestures with executable commands or instructions. Machine vision systems that analyze the images for gestures are referred to as gesture recognition systems.
Various implementations of gesture recognition systems, implementations of methods of gesture recognition, and implementations of methods of generating a depth map are presented in accordance with the present invention. The inventors of the present invention, however, have determined that many presently available gesture recognition systems are insufficient in their ability to recognize gestures and provide such recognition for subsequent processing.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.